When You Break A TV: Night 6
by Ogreatrandom
Summary: Continuing her punishment for breaking a television set Maggie is sent into the movie Serenity. Maggie tries survive the movie working on Serenity as a cook. You don’t have to read the previous six stories.


_**Author's Note:**_

_So I meant to post this a long time ago and didn't get around to it. Half because I was having a hard time finding time to write it and half because I wasn't sure if I would actually do this. I love Serenity, and for the first time actually felt really weird doing anything to change it by adding Maggie. Anyway, finally I've decided to just post it._

_If you're new to this little series thank you for reading and you don't have to read the other stories before this one. I hope you enjoy the story._

_**Previously:**_

_In a tragic accident Maggie broke her television set and discovered a terrible curse. When you break your television you are forced to live through seven nights of being trapped in your favorite movies. This is Maggie's sixth night and sixth movie. In this movie she is a cook on the ship Serenity. If you are confused please feel free to ask._

**Chapter #1:**

I was in the kitchen, working at trying to get a pot of lumpy protein to turn into something edible. My work was ruined when the ship shook, the contents of the pot spilling out. I cursed and threw the spoon I was holding angrily.

Leaving the mess where it sat I stomped over to the bridge, intent on giving the pilot, Wash, a piece of my mind. When I got there he was speaking to the Captain.

"If she doesn't get some extra flow from the engine room to offset the burn-through this landing is gonna get pretty interesting," he was saying.

"Define _interesting_," Mal Reynolds, the captain of the ship said tersely.

"Oh god oh god we're all going to die," Wash replied at once with more calm then I thought the situation needed.

"This is the captain." Mal's voice came over the loudspeaker. I knew that everyone in the ship would be able to hear him, though they weren't as close as I was. "We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then explode."

Now I may be a cook and not a pilot or any type of expert about spaceships but I did know that "explode" was not a desired outcome of an entry sequence. I had thought that working as a cook would keep me _out_ of harm's way. Just goes to show that when Fate hates you there's no escape.

"Just get us on the ground," Mal snapped as he came off the bridge to where I was.

"That part will happen pretty definitely," Wash called back.

"Now you listen to me," I cried running into the bridge as Mal went to talk to Jayne, the big mercenary who went with Mal and the first mate Zoe on their 'perfectly legitimate business deals'.

"Busy here," Wash grunted as he flipped a switch and pulled on the steering thing.

"I want to make it to the ground in one whole and undamaged piece," I told him.

"That makes you part of the majority," Wash said. I opened my mouth indignantly but Wash glared at me. "I'm working on it. Just let me do my job." I stomped off after Mal, who was still dealing with Jayne. I was hoping that Mal would let me get off the ship once we were on the planet to get some more supplies.

"How many weapons you planning on taking?" Mal asked. "You only got the two arms."

"I just get excitable," Jayne replied, "as to choice. Like to have my options open."

"Besides," I snorted, "what's the big difference from one gun to another?"

"You just don't understand," Jayne said fixing me with a hostile look, "cause you've spent too much time wasting on food. Food is nothing but food but a gun is a piece of art."

"I don't plan on any shooting taking place during this job," Mal said cutting into our argument.

"Yeah well what you plan and what takes place ain't ever exactly been similar," Jayne reminded him.

"He's right," I admitted with a shrug. "It's not that it's your fault or anything-"

"Cept when it is," Jayne grunted.

"No grenades," Mal ordered. Jayne groaned. "No grenades," the Captain repeated.

"Captain when we get down to the planet-?" I began to say but was interrupted by the first mate, Zoe, who was emerging from her room.

"We crashing again?" she asked.

"Talk to your husband," Mal answered. "Mule prepped?" Zoe turned, she had already been walking towards to the bridge to see Wash to whom she was blissfully married.

"Good to go sir," she assured him, "just loading her up." She came up besides Jayne and I. "Those grenades?" she asked.

"Yeah," he replied, "Captain doesn't want them."

"Jayne we're robbing the place," she reminded him as she continued to the bridge, "we're not occupying it." I didn't comment but I felt that grenades were as likely to blow it's user up as someone else.

"Wait Captain Mal!" I called chasing after him. I found him talking to the mechanic on Serenity, a bright sunny mannered girl named Kaylee.

"You told me those entry couplings would hold for another week," Mal complained. Kaylee was busy dealing with the machines, many of which were sparking and whirring.

"That was six months ago Captain," Kaylee informed him patiently.

"Is that Mal?" a voice asked behind me. I turned to see the ship's doctor, Simon Tam.

"Yep," I replied, "you need to talk to him?" Simon nodded curtly and pushed past me before I could argue. I considered telling him to wait his turn but I didn't see the point. There was a hard, tight look on Simon's face which foretold trouble so I stepped back with a shrug.

"Doctor," Mal said as he saw Simon glaring at him. He told Simon that he needed to get inoculated and the two of them went off towards the infirmary. "Bit of a rocketry ride, nothing to be worried about."

"I'm not worried," Simon told him.

"Fear is nothing to be ashamed of Doctor," Mal pointed out. I wondered why no one had ever taken the time to tell me that.

"This isn't fear," Simon replied, "this is anger."

"Well," Mal commented, "kind of hard to tell one from the other, face like yours."

"I imagine if it were fear my eyes would be wider."

"I'll keep a lookout for that next time," Mal promised.

"You're not taking her," Simon insisted. The 'her' that Simon was talking about was his little sister River.

"No, no," Mal stormed past the doctor, "this is not a thing I'm interested in talking-"

There was no point in hanging around. These two stubborn pig heads would reach no agreements and this was not a conversation that would be easily resolved. I remembered that Mal was planning on bringing River on their job, hoping that her psychic like abilities would warn of unforeseen dangers.

I cut ahead and caught up with Zoe and Jayne in the cargo bay. They were loading the last of the supplies into the mule. I offered my help until I saw Mal and Simon come into the cargo bay. Mal said something to Simon, a harsh look on his face, before they stormed in opposite directions.

"Mal," I called coming over to him, "can I have a word?"

"Sure Maggie," he nodded joining me. I asked him if I could go pick up supplies, but he shook his head as I finished. "No time," he told me, "I don't want to spend more time here then absolutely necessary."

"We have to eat," I reminded him.

"Small town like this," he pointed out, "our little heist might get some local talk. I don't want them to remember any of us as strangers who were hanging around that day. We'll find somewhere else, till then do your best."

"Paranoia is not a flattering quality," I shouted after him.

"I don't need to be pretty," he called back, "as long as I'm alive."

I was very upset that he wasn't letting me come with them. All I wanted to do was pick up a few supplies in town. They wouldn't even notice I was there. And if they didn't notice I was there then they didn't really have to know I was there.

Yes I know it makes almost no sense, but there was just enough for me to work with.

I looked around. Mal was talking with River. Zoe and Wash were saying goodbye and not paying attention to much else. Jayne was preparing his weapons. Kaylee was tying to talk to Simon, who was still pouting about his conversation with Mal. No one was paying the slightest attention to little old me.

The Mule was the hovering speeder that we used for on planet transportation. The old one had been fairly slow moving. After a rescue mission the crew had pulled it had been turned into a pile of charred wreckage that Kaylee ended up using for spare parts. The New Mule was fast and carried several people comfortably.

It also had a smuggling compartment, built large enough that a person could hide in it.

My plan wasn't complicated, or particularly difficult to come up with. There still wasn't anyone watching so I lifted the hidden smuggling compartment and slipped in. I left a small crack for air, grinning to myself.

It was a brilliant plan and I couldn't think of anything that could possibly go wrong.


End file.
